Eley wrote this text; but the stories at the
bottom of the page were added by watonga.com after visiting with Eley
and Jan about their store and life in Watonga.

I, Eley Eggar,
was born in 1934 to Hattie and Eley Eggar in Snowmac, Oklahoma. I
was the fifth child of seven and the only boy. My father worked in
the oil fields and my mother worked at home taking care of the children.

I grew up in Snowmac, but the town was so small there wasn't a
school. So I attended school in the nearby town of Wolf.

I graduated from Wolf High School in 1951 and worked at Auto Light
Battery Company until that fall when I enrolled in the University of
Oklahoma. While attending the university, I worked as a house boy
in a sorority.

I then moved to Oklahoma City and started in the
grocery business working for Humpty Dumpty. It was there I met
Janice Butler. We married in 1953.

I served two years in
the military. I was stationed at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas and
assigned to the 246 missile battalion. By this time Jan and I had
two daughters, Jackie and Jeanne.

After my time in the service,
I went back to what I knew best, the grocery business. I worked
for several grocery stores moving from Dallas to Tulsa until buying into
Smith Grider Grocery and moving my family to Moore, Oklahoma. By
that time our family had increased by two, Eley Jr. and Paul.

In 1964, right before the birth of our fifth child, David, I bought
Harry Kouri's Grocery Store in Watonga. I was looking for an
opportunity to own my own business and to raise my family in a small
town.

As my business grew, I expanded by building a new store
and calling it, Eley's Red Bud. Watonga became our home. We
started attending The First Baptist Church. I joined Lion's Club
and Watonga Chamber of Commerce, where I was a member and served a term
as the head of the Chamber. I also served on the Watonga Hospital
Board. All of our children graduated from Watonga High School.
One by one our children married and started raising families of their
own.

I
ran Eley's Red Bud until the early 1980's when I developed heart
problems. I eventually had to have by-pass surgery, so I kept the
building and sold the store.

I rented the building to several
businesses the last being Dollar General, which still rents from me
today.

Since that time, I have bought grocery stores in
Holdenville, Blanchard, and Oklahoma City, but have continued to live in
Watonga.

Jan and I now have six grandchildren and two great
grandchildren. Two of my children and their families still live in
Watonga, Eley Jr., who owns Eley's Service Station. He and his
wife, Sherrie, have two children, Savannah and Ethan. Jeanne Karns,
who is the principal of Thomas-Fay-Custer Elementary and husband, Brett
also live in Watonga. Their son, Javis, lives in Allen, Texas.
My daughter, Jackie Strack, and her husband, Mark, live in Geary where
she teaches 6th grade at Geary Elementary. Their daughter,
Tabbitha, and her husband, Randal, and their two children, Gabe and
Kameron, also live in Geary. My two youngest sons live and work in
the Oklahoma City area. Paul is the manager of Hobby Lobby on
Interstate 40. He and his wife, Shelly, have one son, Brent.
David is buying and managing Eley's Bestyet on May Avenue. He has
one son, Chad.

Jan and I started out buying a business in
Watonga in 1964. We have watched our children grow, graduate and
marry here. We have grown from a family of seven to twenty.
We are thankful that we chose to make Watonga our home!

Eley told watonga.com that he bought Harry Kouri's store in January;
but did not tell Jan until she was in the hospital delivering David in
March. So, days later, they all pile in the car and drive to
Watonga to see this new purchase. Eley pulled up in front of the
building and Jan, being used to the big store in Oklahoma City where
Eley worked, began to cry. This started a chain reaction.
One by one all the children started crying. Eley did not get the
reaction that he wanted then; but he says now you couldn't pull Jan away
from Watonga.

Eley lived at the Noble Hotel for six months before he found a house
for his family on Market Street. Some years later, they built a
house on Park.

Eley said that the lots he purchased had to be cleared so that he
could build his new store. One lot had a cement filing station
that Jim Pierce's dad ran, and the other lot had a warehouse that
Mahue's Hardware (located on Main Street) had used for storage.
They must have stored real heavy equipment because the floor was thick
with good 1x12's which they eventually were able to use in their new
house.

Jan tells that when they moved from the old store (located where Body
Works used to be) to the new store (where Dollar General is located now)
they worked all night Saturday night, all day Sunday and all night
Sunday night so that they would be ready to open again on Monday morning
after just being closed for a day. She said that they made
hundreds of trips back and forth across the street with the shopping
carts.

Jan also tells that because she worked at the store, that David was
at the store with her since he was too young for school. In order
to keep him occupied she would give him the glass cleaner and paper
towels to clean the front of the meat case. He would not only do a
good job cleaning the glass; but he would stand there and guard the
glass and make sure no one touched it. He was just three years
old.